To Double Space or Not To Double Space. That is the Question.

It would appear I am not as hip as I would like to believe.  To be fair, I don’t even believe myself to be terribly hip at all.  To not even be that hip is a major blow.  Perhaps using the word ‘hip’ at all should have told me that already.

I had submitted a portion of a manuscript to an editor for review.  Elizabeth marked it up, returned it, and I read it.  One particular note had caught my eye – “Remove the extra space after the periods.”  I eyeballed the pages but couldn’t find more than two after any given period, so I wasn’t certain what she had meant.  After a follow up, I learned that two spaces after a period is considered passé.

As I prepared to type this, I asked a friend their thoughts.  I had assumed they would have said ‘two’ and I wanted some corroborating evidence I wasn’t the only one still using this practice.  I was incorrect. 

Boyd:  “How many spaces should you put after a period?”

Friend:  “One.”

Boyd:  “What!?!  Why one?”

Friend:  “Why would you put more?”

Boyd:  “I was taught TWO.  I’ve always used TWO!  I’ve used TWO since I would get papers marked incorrectly in typing class!!!”

Friend:  “Typing class?  What is this – the 60’s?”

What made me even angrier was he was alive in the 60’s and he knew to only use one period.  I was born over a decade later and I wasn’t in the know.

It would seem that this is not a new rule.  A quick Google search shows there has been an extensive dialogue on this for a number of years.  The earliest webpage I could find was 2011, but I’m certain this has been a discussion for far longer.

How on Earth did I miss this?

I feel as though there should have been some sort of announcement made.  On any given day, I’m made to suffer the latest hairstyle of the Kardashian de jour in a news feed, but a monumental shift in a rule of grammar?  Nothing.

When did this lot become more important than grammar...?

I can see the argument for the change.  Back in the days of the typewriter, each character typed used the 

same amount of horizontal spacing (fancy word for ‘width’) no matter the need.  A good example would be the lower case ‘w’ vs. the lower case ‘l’ – clearly one is wider, but on a typewriter they would take up the same amount of spacing.  Since all the spacing was equal, it could be difficult to tell when one sentence ended and another started.  The extra space after the period made it clear.

The old monospace type from a typewriter on top.  The more modern proportional type on the bottom.

Fast forward to the age of word processers where the traditional monospace type was replaced with proportional.  Meaning?  Proportional sets the spacing based on the actual size of the letter.  Here’s a random assortment of letters to demonstrate:  wlmi1qvbzx.  The lower case ‘l’ between the ‘w’ and the ‘m’ 

clearly takes up less space.

The first computer I ever used - the Radio Shack TRS Model 80 Version 3.

Learning this is difficult to mentally process.  The double space after the period has been ingrained in my head for decades.  It’s like suddenly waking up and having everyone tell you that the sky is green, apples are orange, or that Donald Trump is President of the United States.

For the moment, I’m refusing to embrace the single spacing thing.  I was taught two spaces, I’ve always used two spaces, and damn this new-fangled way of thinking.  Until next week, I’ll be on my front porch yelling at the neighborhood children to get off my lawn.